Reappearance
by Pop.Pop.Bubble.Gum
Summary: One-shot. Gwen is having energy problems in the middle of a battle, and who should turn up but our favorite witch?


A/N: My friend Sabrina and I were watching the new Alien Force episodes together (well, sort of, we watch it while on the phone with each other and freak out about everything) and in "Unearthed," Gwen got into some trouble and Kevin was like "Gwen!" but he and Ben couldn't really do much. Sabrina said "Wouldn't it be great if Charmcaster came in now and saved her? It won't happen, but..." and that got my mind rolling, so here we go! This is just random vague time line to meet my needs. There might be small hints at pairings, but otherwise it's just an appearance by our favorite witch.

Disclaimer: I disclaim.

* * *

Another night, another DNAlien battle. The numbers of DNAliens that would swarm to the battlefield was higher and higher each time Ben, Gwen, and Kevin found themselves tangling with them, and it was becoming more and more difficult to hold ground.

Kevin, Gwen, and Ben tried to support each other in battle, but it wasn't always possible. Kevin tended to get dog-piled, considering that his powers were very physically based; Ben was attacked in swarms no matter the alien he was because the DNAliens viewed him as their biggest threat; and Gwen ended up with whatever was left, which tended to be quite a bit lately. They all got their fair share of the game, but the point of the matter turned out to be they were so tied up in their own circle of battles that if one of them needed back-up, it was very difficult to nearly impossible for that back-up to be provided.

And Gwen really needed that back-up.

Mana shield after mana shield shattered and Gwen could feel her energy running low. She couldn't remember feeling so drained since she'd first tapped into her magical power, and if she'd had time to think of it, she would have realized how strange that was. When she was younger and had been learning magic from Charmcaster's spell book, the more she practiced the more natural it became, until she eventually abandoned the spell book and began to do things on her own. That's when her spells turned from blue to pink, and she would only find out upon meeting her grandmother that the change was actually a switch from her magical power to her inner energy from her alien form. Though her powers now came directly from her own body energy, it never tired her as much as forcing magical energy from her body.

A particularly well-aimed blast from one of the DNAlien weapons shattered another of Gwen's shield and sent her flying back. She hit the ground with painful force and thought she heard Kevin yell her name, but her ears were ringing and she couldn't be sure. She struggled to her knees and then her feet, but she felt so dizzy. The world had started to spin. 'Stupid DNAliens,' She found herself thinking vaguely. A DNAlien fight hadn't been the plan for the night, but the humans-turned-alien had a way of ruining plans.

Gwen forced her world to stop spinning, literally focused her mind on everything clearing up and it did so. Now was not the time to zone out; she couldn't depend on Kevin and Ben helping her if she found herself unable to fight. A swoop of her hands and another mana shield came up just in time to be shattered, and before her brain had processed it, her body was already back in fight mode, pulling up mana shields and smacking DNAliens out of the way with large mana blasts. Gwen was a fighter through and through.

But odds sometimes stack up.

Gwen sent mana below her feet to create a hover board and brought herself to the air, the only way she could get out of the swarm. She hadn't wanted to fly today; she didn't feel steady enough to trust that the energy would hold, but what choice did she have?

Mana shield; attack, block, attack, dodge, shield...

It was being unconscious movement on Gwen's part, and she could feel her energy practically ripping out of her with every piece of mana she sent out. Something wasn't right, something was very wrong, something... something...

Gwen only vaguely registered that the energy below her feet had disappeared, though this time she knew she heard Kevin yell her name even as the wind whistled past her ears. Wind--wind...? Was she falling?

She felt a tug around her midsection and everything suddenly cleared once more. She realized she was going upward--flying? But... how? Kevin couldn't fly, and Ben was currently Humongousaur, so that left her own power, but...

Gwen felt a body press against her back and she gasped at what was definitely a woman's form. Suddenly everything stopped--stopped dead, and with her clear head, she recognized that they were high above the battlefield.

"Useless as ever."

Gwen's body tensed. That voice, that voice, how did she know it? Her head was suspiciously clear now and her energy didn't feel as depleted as it had just moments before as she--had she been plummeting to the ground? She realized she had.

Gwen sent mana to her feet, creating a platform, and ripped herself away from her savior, turning fast in the air to see who it was.

So familiar, but different now--purple eyes same as ever, dark skin contrasting with now-short gray-to-white hair, outfit so bizarrely different but there was no mistake.

"Charmcaster," Gwen hissed as she backed away, putting distance between herself and her childhood rival. She raised her hands to show the mana now glowing around them, ready to attack. "What the _hell _are you doing here?" She found herself saying venomously. She didn't usually say anything even mildly profane; Charmcaster deserved anything Gwen could say to her.

Charmcaster was older now, and she seemed no more intimidated of Gwen now than when they had been younger. She cast a superior smile to Gwen at the question, but took the time to tuck a short strand of gray hair behind her ear. The earrings she once had, Gwen noticed, were now gone. Gwen wasn't sure why she noticed at all.

"I just saved your life there, princess," Charmcaster finally said in that same smug tone she'd always used. "Is that any way to speak to me?" Her eyes flicked to the mana below Gwen's feet and then to the energy around Gwen's hands and she scoffed. "Your energy has changed."

Charmcaster's energy hadn't changed at all except in volume. The magical energy practically poured from her skin as she floated there, actually flying as she always had opposed to Gwen's energy platform.

"I didn't ask for you to save me," Gwen ground out, but as much as she would have liked to demand answers from the woman before her--what are you doing here now? what do you want? I know you had something to do with my energy problems, I don't know why but I know, so what the hell did you do to me?--she knew now was not the time. Ben and Kevin were still on the battlefield, and who knew how they were faring? Charmcaster had brought her too high for Gwen to see what was going on below, and considering Ben was currently Humongousaur, that was saying something.

Without another word to her rival, Gwen let herself plummet downward. It probably wasn't a good idea to change her altitude so fast, but with her energy feeling as if she'd just downed a Red Bull, Gwen found herself itching to get back into the fight.

"Gwen!" She heard Ben shout and she stopped herself abruptly, her mana pulsing beneath her feet. She smiled at him and he looked as if he would question her, but she yelled back, "Later! Let's get out of here!"

It wouldn't be the first time they ran from a DNAlien fight. There were just too many for three people--mutants, aliens, whatever they could be called with their respective powers--to defeat in one go. Gwen blasted mana all around the ground, blowing DNAliens every which way.

She found she didn't have to search for Kevin to help him out and then escape, for Ben-as-Humongousaur had spotted Kevin first and scooped him up from the middle of a fight as if nothing was going on. There was a brief moment of hilarity as Ben flicked a few DNAliens off his hand so it was Kevin alone, but Gwen focused her attention back to the fight. Time to clear a path. She brought her arms back and then swung forward, throwing a huge blast of mana into the swarm of DNAliens to clear the way.

She was surprised to see another shot of pink energy blast off next to hers, and turned to see Charmcaster flying several feet back with her arms out, sending spells off.

The combination of mana, magic, and Humongousaur trampling through, and the way to Kevin's car was cleared in no time. Ben set Kevin down and timed out the Omnitrix, shrinking down to himself.

"Everyone in," Ben said as he jumped into the backseat of Kevin's car. Kevin was already getting into the driver's seat.

Gwen looked to Charmcaster--her rival, her rival who had helped her tonight, her rival who had tricked and betrayed her before--and repeated, "Everyone in."

Gwen caught Charmcaster's look of surprise as she was getting into the backseat, but Charmcaster didn't question the offer and instead got into the passenger's seat. Kevin hit the gas before Charmcaster had even closed the door.

Kevin's car once again proved itself worthy of use as it put the miles between them and the DNAliens at speeds that were clearly illegal. For a long time it was quiet--everyone was catching their breaths, everyone was thinking.

Kevin was the one who broke it. "Who the hell is this?"

Charmcaster cast Kevin a withering glare as Gwen and Ben answered in unison, "Charmcaster."

Ben looked to his cousin and frowned. "But, Charmcaster... what is she doing here?"

Gwen opened her mouth to reply, but Charmcaster beat her to it. "You can ask me yourself, as I am right here," She stated in a surprisingly composed voice.

Kevin and Ben might have questioned Charmcaster then, but Gwen had more pressing matters than Charmcaster's appearance tonight. "What did you do to my powers?" She demanded. She wished she could face Charmcaster, but it was rather difficult in the car. "I know you did something, so don't deny it!"

Charmcaster scoffed and turned, pressing against Kevin's shoulder as she moved to the divide between his and her seat in an attempt to properly face those in the backseat as she spoke. "If you were using magic, it wouldn't have been a problem. What happened to your energy? It's not magic anymore, it's--"

"None of your business," Gwen broke in fiercely. She could feel Ben looking at her and couldn't bring herself to care. She hadn't been like this since she was a child, she knew it but the appearance of her childhood rival made her bubble with an anger she thought she'd long forgotten. "What did you do?"

Charmcaster's eyes flashed with that darker shade of purple that had always meant she was angry, but it calmed almost immediately, and when she spoke, it was once again in a surprisingly composed voice. "I've been feeling your energy in waves for months and I've been ignoring it. I've felt it vaguely over the years, but it's never been so strong as late. Tonight it was particularly pressing on my senses, so I tracked you with it. Tracking energy involves drawing it toward yourself. Magical energy disperses and would leave me with a trail to follow, but whatever it is you're using seems to leave your body completely. I guess I was draining you of your power by tracking you."

Gwen felt a chill down her back. The thought of Charmcaster draining her mana was particularly disturbing. She didn't want her enemy knowing they had that sort of power over her.

"What do you mean you've been feeling her energy?" Kevin asked, casting Charmcaster a side-long glance. It bothered him that Ben and Gwen seemed to know this woman, but he had no idea who she was and had yet to receive a sufficient explanation.

"We always used the same sort of magic," Charmcaster said off hand, as if it didn't infuriate her that Gwen had stolen her spell book. "Since she started using it, I've been able to feel a vague wave of energy when she uses her powers. It's changed over the years but I thought she was just getting older. I wouldn't have guessed she doesn't even use magical energy anymore, but we're apparently still linked through the magical connection or I wouldn't be able to feel it."

"We are not linked in any way," Gwen said immediately. That was another thing that sent chills through her. How dare Charmcaster say they were linked? "I've never felt your energy!"

Charmcaster gave Gwen a look that clearly said she thought the words were ridiculous. "Of course you have. In our battles, that tingle through your body wasn't the magic, it was your reaction to my use of magic." She smirked as Gwen's angry look faltered, giving clear signals that she was speaking the truth. "You felt it randomly over that summer, didn't you? Shrugged it off, probably. And you felt it tonight, too."

"I...I haven't felt it since that summer," Gwen replied quickly. "If I feel your magic, why haven't I felt it since then?" She had felt a familiar tingle tonight that hadn't been around for five years, but that could be ignored. It was otherwise true that she hadn't felt it since they'd last encountered when she was 10.

Charmcaster frowned and, as if she was divulging the most private of secrets, said stonily, "I haven't used magic since then, not until tonight anyway." She scoffed then and slipped back into her seat, staring out at the road ahead as if the scenery they were rushing toward was the most interesting thing in the world. "It's not like magic has ever helped me any. It just got me into trouble. Magic doesn't pay the bills either. I went to school, I got a job, I got a life. I'd rather have never used magic again, so you owe me for tonight. I saved your life. And you're paying for my suit. It's ruined."

It's a trick, Gwen's mind was saying. She's tricking you again, she's lying, she still wants the Omnitrix, she wants--a normal life.

Gwen thought for the first time of Charmcaster's clothing. In the past she'd worn the gaudy clothing of a witch, but tonight she had saved Gwen in a very nice black pantsuit. Gwen wondered what job Charmcaster could have. Nothing came to mind.

"Why'd you come tonight?" Ben asked, breaking the silence that had settled over the car. "You always hated us, and you said you've been ignoring Gwen's energy for the last five years. Why would you show up?"

Charmcaster didn't reply for a few long moments, and when Ben was about to demand an answer, she spoke. "It was... distressed." Kevin was the only one who could see, but Charmcaster's expression had softened. "Gwen's energy was distressed. I--I still don't care about you guys, but I--" She didn't seem to want to divulge the information, but pressed on, "I help people now. Even you, if I have to." Her voice suddenly hardened, though still calm. "But don't expect it again. This was one time."

The tension in the car was practically tangible. Charmcaster had closed emotional walls around herself almost strong enough that one could actually see them; Gwen was thinking of everything--of the fight tonight, of fights of the past, Charmcaster now, Charmcaster then, tricks and reality and everything else--and was so deep in her own thoughts she probably wouldn't have heard if someone spoke to her. Ben uncomfortably looked between the two women. He had questions to ask but he doubted they would answer now. Kevin smartly kept his mouth shut. There were plenty more questions to ask on his part, but they could wait until later.

It wasn't until town was in sight that the silence was broken again. "Where am I dropping you off?"

Charmcaster looked to Kevin, and then to her watch. She frowned as she wiped dust from the face of her watch. She was practically covered in dust, byproduct of rushing toward the ground to catch Gwen before the orange-haired girl crash landed. "It's too late now," She said, mostly to herself. "Just the nearest hotel."

"Don't live around here?" Kevin asked, though he wasn't interested. It was a good thing, too, for Charmcaster didn't provide an answer.

Kevin did his part by driving Charmcaster to not the nearest hotel, as it was a dump, but the nearest _decent _hotel. Charmcaster stepped out of the car without a word, but hesitated before she closed the door. At last she fished something from her pocket and tossed it on the seat she'd occupied. "If you need me--and I mean really need me, your asses better be on the line--you can... call." She closed the door and walked toward the lighted building then, leaving Gwen to reach from the back to grab Charmcaster's leave.

It was a business card.

**CHARMCASTER, L.L.B.  
Criminal Defense Lawyer  
Innocent? Call. We'll help.**

It was followed by several telephone numbers and an e-mail address, all profesional except for one labeled "Cell Phone."

Ben read the card over her shoulder. "What kind of lawyer has her cell phone number on a business card? 'Innocent? Call. We'll help.' That's really not a catchy logo."

"Hey, any help we can get, right?" Kevin said as he put the car in gear and headed deeper into town. "Let me have that card. I could use a good lawyer."

Ben cast Kevin a disapproving look, but Gwen sat back and slipped the card into her pocket. "I'll just... hold onto it."

* * *

A/N: Gasp. This was supposed to be different but it started writing itself. That's okay, though, I like it. I characterize an older version of Charmcaster in several different ways, but this was the matured version who's... I guess on the good side. Sometimes I like her still evil, it depends. I definitely like her more feisty than this composed version, but it's all good. This was fun to write out, even if it did get pretty far from the original idea.


End file.
